Unlikely Heroes
by The Mad Hatteress
Summary: Rage, Hollow, Fluke, Evanz, and Jake are just kids. But when Gubiak, satyr and protector of heroes, brings them back to Camp Half-Blood, their lives are changed forever.
1. Prologue

**Unlikely Heroes**

**A/N: Welcome everyone, to the beginning of another multichap fic. I know, I know, there's not been an update to "Dumbest Idea Ever". I'm working on it, trust me. This fic is for fans of the Crew and fans of the Percy Jackson universe. As an author, I feed off of reviews (and the tears of my readers), so please tell me what you liked, didn't like, etc. Huge thanks to Epoc for proofreading, expect a lot of credits to her and Kia for taking the jumbled mess that is my brain and making it coherent. Right, on with the show…**

**PROLOGUE**

Gubiak and Hollow hauled the slack, half-conscious body of Rage down Half-Blood Hill towards the camp boundary. The Fury circled above them, preparing to dive. Fluke, Evanz and Jake sped up, past the outer limit of Camp Half-Blood, following Gubiak's directions to the medical bay to warn them that a badly-injured demigod was about to fall into their laps.

Back at the Hill, hope was creeping its way into Gubiak's mind. He was going to make it- Rage and Hollow would be safe. They were nearly there. Nearly safe. Nearly, nearly...

The Fury swooped.

Fourteen year old Hollow swung wildly with his celestial bronze knife as Gubiak shouldered Rage's ragdoll form and half-carried, half-dragged him to the camp's border. Hollow's brow furrowed in concentration and his lips were set in a firm line, but the eyes gave it away. The Fury could see his fear, plain as day. He tried to stab the creature again, his blade barely brushing the leathery skin of the Fury's toughened wing. A strange hissing sound came from just above him and he realised the Kindly One was _laughing._ Terror flared in his mind and he scurried down the hill, the muscles in his legs burning as he forced himself onwards, to join his friend and keeper inside the bounds of the camp.

The door of the medical bay was already being held open, and Hollow could make out the panicked faces of his three other friends in the darkness. Their expressions melted into collective relief as they saw the two demigods and the satyr. Gubiak gently laid Rage's limp body down on the bed that had been prepared for him.

The boy was bleeding profusely from a shallow but nasty cut on his forehead, and a far deeper and more serious wound in his side. The attendants got to work and

tipped a little of a golden liquid into his mouth. Rage's already heavy-lidded eyes fluttered closed and his breathing slowed as he fell unconscious. They gently wiped the blood from his palid forehead. An ointment that smelled vaguely of honeysuckle and peaches was softly applied to the injury. The damage to his side was more severe; a square of ambrosia was pushed into his mouth and a faint light emanated, seemingly from under his skin. The crusted, crimson area around the wound began to knit itself together, soothing the agitated flesh and clearing the dirt and grime of travel from his system.

The door swung open to reveal Mr D, the camp's leader. The colour drained from his usually red, disgruntled face as his eyes fell upon the young teen lying prone on the bed. Fluke, Hollow, Evanz, Jake, and Gubiak followed his gaze to Rage's unconscious form.

A holographic symbol glowed faintly over his head. He had been claimed. If it had been any other symbol, it wouldn't earn such a drastic reaction. But instead of a sun, or heart, or even trident, a pale yellow lightning bolt marked Rage as a child of Zeus.

"Di immortales." Mr D swore, before hurrying from the room.


	2. Just Your Average Everyday Demigod

**Unlikely Heroes**

**A/N: So sue me. It starts with an A-B chapter. The next one will have action, I promise! Thanks to Kia for being a wonderful editor/proof-reader as usual!**

**Chapter One: Just Your Average Everyday Demigod**

Rage jerked awake, the pounding on the door of Cabin One making him jump.

"Get up nerd, you're joining us for Greek Studies in fifteen minutes." Hollow's voice came through the door.

Rage, child of Zeus and the only inhabitant of Cabin One, rolled out of bed and pulled on a vibrant orange 'Camp Half Blood' t-shirt and a pair of red shorts. "I'm coming, I'm coming!" He hurried over to the door and exited to find Hollow standing with his arms folded and a bored expression on his face.

The two fourteen year olds walked to join the rest of Hollow's cabin, Cabin Six, home to the children of Athena. Hollow waved at their cabin's councillor, Juke. Juke was the eldest child of Athena still at the camp: 18, and tall, with a lean but muscled frame and a face that was handsome and showed he had far more knowledge than should weigh on one so young. Rage almost laughed at how Hollow stood a little straighter when Juke caught his eye and smiled. From the minute they'd met, Hollow had looked up to Juke and wanted to impress and emulate him as much as possible. To anyone else, it would have been cute. To Rage, it was hilarious.

Hollow noticed Rage's smirk and elbowed him in the arm before dragging him over to a chair. Hollow's cabinmates smiled at the new addition to their ranks. For the first couple of days, the other kids at the camp had kept their distances from Rage and looked at him as if he were some kind of exotic animal. But after seeing that he was just a normal kid, they welcomed him to the fold.

"I _hate _Greek Studies…" Rage whined, and Hollow rolled his eyes.

"You just hate studying."

"Not everyone is the son of the goddess of wisdom," Rage pouted. It was fair to say that Rage had always been… easily distracted. The ADHD that was supposed to keep him alert and alive on the battlefield had made him one of those kids in class who could never focus on what the teacher was saying for more than five minutes. The dyslexia that made the words on the board swim and swirl before his eyes didn't help. In fact, that was how he'd first met Hollow. Sixth Grade Maths (though Hollow always swore it was Chemistry), the two then eleven-year-olds had started a blossoming friendship by flinging bits of paper at each other's heads. Despite Hollow's love of learning, he too struggled to focus in class, and their mutual distraction created a bond that had lasted far longer than either of them had expected.

For the next two years, they had kept mostly to themselves- the weird nerdy kids with 'problems'. That was until a certain ginger Polish exchange student joined their school and naturally grafted onto their duo. He introduced himself as Gubiak, and the three became fast friends. A year of friendship and a few hundred attacks by monsters clouded by mist, and Rage and Hollow's parents realised that it wasn't safe for them to be outside Camp Half Blood anymore. And so, Gubiak led them across the States to the camp. On their journey, they had found Fluke, Evanz, and Jake: three scared, confused kids with no idea what was happening. And Gubiak saved them. The five demigods owed so much to the satyr; debts they felt they could never repay.

"Rage!" Hollow hissed, elbowing him. Rage had been reminiscing for so long that he'd forgotten he was supposed to be listening to the class. "Greek Studies is over, wake up, dumbass."

Rage jumped up and stuck his tongue out at his friend as a way of saying goodbye, then strolled over to the archery range for his session with the children of Apollo. As he approached, he spotted his friend, Fluke, and grinned. The blond returned the smile with one of his own. Rage had never been the best at archery, especially when compared to Apollo's kids, but at least he had Fluke to talk to during these sessions.

"You're chirpy this morning, your highness." Fluke grinned, earning him an eye-roll from Rage. When Rage had been claimed by Zeus, his friends had taken to calling him 'your highness'.

"No chirpier than you, Goldilocks." Fluke stuck his tongue out and handed his friend a bow and quiver of arrows. The blond himself notched an arrow and immediately let it fly without so much as a glance at the target. The head sunk into the target's centre with a satisfying '_thunk_'.

"Show-off," Rage muttered.

"Nope. I'm just better than you."

Rage pulled back on his own bowstring and aimed carefully. His grip on the bow slipped and the arrow loosed before smacking into the straw outer ring of the target. He frowned.

"You can't be good at everything, your highness," Fluke teased.

"It's not my fault! My aim is fine, it's just these bows are so unwieldy!" Rage whined, and this time it was Fluke who rolled his eyes.

"Want to try something else?" A voice came from behind the pair. Peace, Apollo's cabin councillor, was smiling at them. He was widely regarded as the friendliest of the campers, which was why many people had expected him to be Hermes' kid. That was, until they saw his skill at healing and music. Now he was 17 and the oldest of Apollo's children.

"Here, try these." The older boy handed Rage a few throwing daggers. Rage took them hesitantly. They felt heavy but well balanced in his hand, and the worn wood was reassuringly firm under his fingertips. He sighed, aimed, and threw all three in quick succession. _Thwack, thwack, thwack_! The daggers sunk into the centre of the target and Rage turned to Fluke, a triumphant smile on his face.

"Show-off."

"Nope, I'm just better than you," Rage replied smugly.

"Come on you two, knock it off." Peace ruffled Fluke's hair. The older boy was almost twice the height of anyone else in the cabin and one of only two brunet children. He stood out as different, and that may be why his father showed him such favour. Apollo had sent him a golden bow and a quiver of enchanted fire arrows: a gift to show the Sun god's belief in his eldest child.

Rage and Fluke once more engaged in their quiet competition, shooting smug glances at each other every time they hit the centre of the target with more and more complicated shots. Fluke would spin and fire without looking; Rage would fling a dagger over his shoulder; Fluke would take a running jump and shoot down; Rage would do a shoulder roll and throw as soon as he came up. Peace watched them from a distance, half exasperated, half amused by their antics. The hour flew by and then it was time for Rage to join the children of Hermes for swordplay.

He wandered to the arena, grinning as Evanz waved before running over to him. At twelve, Evanz was the youngest of the group and Jake's adopted brother. Evanz's mother had been unable to cope with siring the child of a god and had given him up as soon as she could. Jake and Evanz had become fast friends and, when their father was killed by a mugger, the two ran away together instead of risking separation by the foster system. They crossed half a state before they found Fluke: it wasn't long before Gubiak recognised all three of them as demigods and took them into his care too.

"Morning Rage!" Evanz grinned. "You're supposed to be my partner today."

"Uh huh. You are _way _too chipper. Tone it down, Bubbles." Rage returned the smile before heading over to the armoury and grabbing two swords. Evanz joined him and the two sparred for a while, trading blows and practicing disarming moves. Neither were incredibly talented at swordplay, but Rage was able to practice his moves with a smaller, easier partner and Evanz could watch someone older and slightly more skilled and learn how to use his fairly limited strength.

The smell of sweat mixing with sand was vaguely unpleasant but almost homely, since it was so reminiscent of the era of the original Greek heroes. Rage felt almost calmed by the scent of the arena and the familiar sparking clang of steel on steel.

"Idiot, twist your arm like _this!" _Rage demonstrated the motion again, and Evanz's sword clattered to the ground. The younger picked up his sword and copied the disarming movement and, finally, Rage's weapon fell to the dirt. The elder pushed up his glasses and grinned. "See? This is why I'm glad we're on the same team for capture the flag this afternoon."

"I wouldn't be much of a threat anyway." Evanz smiled sheepishly.

"You're getting better. Now accept the compliment, idiot," Rage smirked. The two had their arguments, sure, but when it came down to it they were almost like brothers too.

The cabin councillor notified them that the session was over and they needed to head to their tables for lunch. "Cabin Eleven, fall in!" he shouted. The children of Hermes lined up and Rage headed over to Table One alone. He was first in line to push the best part of his meal into the fire as an offering to his father, and when he returned to his table he waited for the others to sit first.

Technically, everyone was supposed to only sit at the table that correlated to their cabin, but Chiron turned a blind eye to the fact that Rage always moved to join one of his friends. Today he flopped down on table ten, next to Jake and the other children of Aphrodite. Tyde, as councillor, smiled welcomingly at him. With his kind heart and friendly nature, Chiron had immediately pegged him as a child of Hermes. But when the claiming symbol appeared and marked him as Aphrodite's son he quickly became one of the most popular people around the camp. He and Peace had arrived together, and had been best friends ever since.

"You can't sit with us, in less than an hour you're going to be our enemy." Jake grinned, flicking his fringe out of his eyes.

"Like you're competition, _pretty boy_." Rage stuck his tongue out, before taking a bite of his sandwich. Jake sipped his drink and glared jokingly over the rim.

"Laugh it up, but I'm the one in the cabin with the hottest girls." He winked at one of the other campers across the table and she giggled.

"That's your half-sister, man. That's weird."

Jake shrugged. "Just 'cause there are no cute girls in your cabin…"

"I'd rather be powerful than just good at attracting girls," Rage muttered.

"I'm both," Jake grinned.

"Guess we'll see at capture the flag." Rage stuck his tongue out at his friend.

"Jay! Jay!" Evanz called, hurrying over to the table with Fluke and Hollow in tow. "We've gotta go; our cabins are going to Ares' cabin to prepare for Capture the Flag!"

Hollow shook his head. "You guys are so going to lose. Juke has a genius plan."

"Hollow's got a cruuush!" Fluke spoke in a singsong voice and he skipped backwards, grinning.

"Fuck off," the taller boy grumbled, shooting a poisonous glare at his shorter, blonder companion, and Fluke just grinned wider.

"Tyde is the strongest child of Aphrodite in decades. Plus, we're allied with Ares. We'll win," Jake grinned. He slung an arm around his adopted brother's shoulders and guided him away. "C'mon, little bro. Let's go beat these losers."

The two of them headed away from the table and Rage turned to face Hollow and Fluke.

"So, know-it-all, let's go. I think we've just been promised a war." Rage grinned, hopped up, and led his two friends back towards Cabin Six, where the children of Athena were allying their troops.


End file.
